Jason Furman's Reviews > AI Needs You: How We Can Change AI's Future and Save Our Own
AI Needs You: How We Can Change AI's Future and Save Our Own
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There are lots and lots of opinions on policy towards and governance of AI. A lot of those opinions are based on recycling the same sets of arguments or facts. Some of those opinions are that others should not have opinions on these matters. Now enter Verity Harding, who has worked in government, industry, and at universities, with a book that is truly additive by bringing new ideas and insights to bear into what is already starting to feel like an old debate. It is also a really fun and stimulating read.
The bulk of Harding’s book is a history of the governance, mostly by government, of three postwar technologies: space exploration, IVF and human embryonic research, and the internet. Each of these are interesting in their own right, filled with lively characters, big stakes, and something that is much harder ex post—a sense of the many different, and worse, possibilities and paths that were not taken because of the choices that were made.
What emerges is a subtle interplay of contingency, individual government actions, the importance of ethics as a North Star and motivation, diplomacy (in some cases), and also the participation, and in some cases, centrality of businesses. The result was a treaty that space should be disarmed, a broad societal consensus in the UK on embryonic research, and the extraordinary rise of the internet as a global system that is not controlled by any one country or corporations (in part because of wise choices made in the United States).
Harding links each of these histories to their relevance but also limitations for thinking about AI. The individual histories are bracketed by a discussion of the rise of digital platforms in the Bay Area, Harding’s thrill and disappointment with them, and then a discussion of what lessons we should take from all of it.
Harding’s commitment is not to a specific policy but instead to a process that respects the importance of government but also the essential role of business, the need for ethics on the part of both players, and a passionate belief that “you” have a role to play as well.
The bulk of Harding’s book is a history of the governance, mostly by government, of three postwar technologies: space exploration, IVF and human embryonic research, and the internet. Each of these are interesting in their own right, filled with lively characters, big stakes, and something that is much harder ex post—a sense of the many different, and worse, possibilities and paths that were not taken because of the choices that were made.
What emerges is a subtle interplay of contingency, individual government actions, the importance of ethics as a North Star and motivation, diplomacy (in some cases), and also the participation, and in some cases, centrality of businesses. The result was a treaty that space should be disarmed, a broad societal consensus in the UK on embryonic research, and the extraordinary rise of the internet as a global system that is not controlled by any one country or corporations (in part because of wise choices made in the United States).
Harding links each of these histories to their relevance but also limitations for thinking about AI. The individual histories are bracketed by a discussion of the rise of digital platforms in the Bay Area, Harding’s thrill and disappointment with them, and then a discussion of what lessons we should take from all of it.
Harding’s commitment is not to a specific policy but instead to a process that respects the importance of government but also the essential role of business, the need for ethics on the part of both players, and a passionate belief that “you” have a role to play as well.
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Reading Progress
March 5, 2024
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March 5, 2024
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March 5, 2024
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